OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates: East Bay Chapter

Founded in 1973, OCA (www.ocanational.org) is a national organization dedicated to advancing the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans in the United States. OCA aims to embrace the hopes and aspirations of nearly 13 million Asian Pacific Americans in the United States.

OCA's goals are:

• to advocate for social justice, equal opportunity and fair treatment;

• to promote civic participation, education, and leadership;

• to advance coalitions and community building; and

• to foster cultural heritage.

To achieve these goals, OCA is engaged in organizing its 80 chapters and affiliates across the nation to develop both leadership and community involvement. OCA chapters and our organizational and college affiliates are establishing strong local programs in all parts of the country. OCA's base in Washington, D.C. gives the national office an effective vantage point for monitoring legislation and policy issues affecting Asian Pacific Americans. In addition, OCA is able to build national support and to work in coalition with other national groups around issues affecting Asian Pacific Americans. OCA takes no collective position on the politics of any foreign country, but instead focuses on the welfare and civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans in the United States.

OCA-East Bay (www.ocaeastbay.org) was established in 1987 to represent the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. During its over two decades of activism, members of OCA-East Bay have focused on understanding local and national issues and institutions affecting Asian Americans in the East Bay and have taken effective action to affectpolicy both on the local and national levels. Among the chapters many achievements are the following:

• Advocated for increased Asian Pacific American voter participation through bilingual ballot materials and voter registration efforts and by advocating for fair election redistricting;

• Increased Asian Pacific American participation in local policy making by identifying and training Asian Pacific Americans for public elective offices and high ranking governmental positions;

• Fought for the establishment of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center;

• Organized forums for Asian Pacific American community leaders to meet with elected officeholders, public institutional leaders and business leaders;

• Advocated for equal and language sensitive access to government services through enactment of equal access ordinances and their implementations;

• Established the Frank Kiang Memorial Scholarship.